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Challenging Holocaust Deniers

I’ve had an interesting few weeks challenging the absurd comments Holocaust deniers make on YouTube. Many of these commenters are rabid racists others are more controlled. What they all seem to have in common is a rampant underlying anti-Semitism.

They produce “proof” like the Leuchter report or quote passages from the books of discredited history writer David Irving. They will attempt to show that the Jews are responsible for all the ills of humanity and that this somehow justifies their treatment at the hands of the Nazis.

They will rant on about the inconsistencies in the testimony of eye-witness accounts or continually repeat the fact that the stories about lampshades made of human skin or soap made from Jewish body fat have been discredited. They completely disregard the massive amount of documentary evidence which irrefutably confirms the occurrence of the Holocaust as a historic event. They seem to think that arguing whether a door to a gas chamber opened inwards or outwards will somehow negate everything else legitimate scholars and scientists know about Hitler’s “Final Solution”. They don’t understand why historians will not take anything they say seriously and then put this down to Jew inspired censorship.

The Jaeger Report

They suddenly fall silent when confronted with a document like the one that has become known as the “Jaeger Report”. The report was written by SS-Standartenfuehrer Karl Jaeger who was the commander of one of the Einsatzkommandos (EK 3), it provides a detailed account of his unit’s killing activities in Nazi-occupied Lithuania. He breaks down the figures for Jews murdered by EK 3 into “Jewish men”, “Jewish women”, and “Jewish children”.

Jaeger wrote the report at the request of Walter Stahlecker, the commander of Einsatzgruppe A. The report covers a five month period, during which EK 3 murdered over 130,000 people. Approximately one third of them were listed by Jaeger as “Jewish children”. On 1 February 1942, Jaeger updated the totals to 136,421 Jews (46,403 men, 55,556 women and 34,464 children), 1,064 Communists, 653 mentally disabled, and 134 others in a handwritten note for Stahlecker.

The original document is held at the Central Lithuanian Archives in Vilnius.

Page 1

The Commander of the

Security Police and the SD

Einsatzkommando 3 Kauen, December 1, 1941

Secret Reich Matter! 5 copies

4thcopy

Complete tabulation of executions carried out in the Einsatzkommando 3 zone up to December 1, 1941

Take-over of the security police tasks in Lithuania by Einsatzkommando 3 on July 2, 1941

(Einsatzkommando 3 took over the Vilnius area on August 9, 1941 and the Schaulen area on October 2, 1941. Up to this time, Einsatzkommando 9 handled Vilnius and Einsatzkommando 2 handled Schaulen.)

(Executions carried out by Lithuanian partisans on my instructions and under my command:

July 4, 41

Kauen – Fort VII – 416 Jews, 47 Jewesses

463

July 6, 41

Kauen – Fort VII – Jews

2,514

Following deployment of a raiding commando under the leadership of SS First Lieutenant Hamann and 8 to 10 reliable men from Einsatzkommando 3, the following operations were carried out in collaboration with Lithuanian partisans:

17 Jews, 1 Jewess who had contravened the ghetto laws, 1 Reich German who had converted to Judaism and had attended a rabinnical school, and then 15 terrorists of the Kalinin Group

34

Component of Ein. 3 in Dünaburg in the period from Jul 13-Aug 21, 41

9012 Jews, Jewesses and Jewish children, 573 active Communists

9,585

Component of Ein. 3 in Wilna: Aug 8 to Sep. 1, 41

City of Wilna

425 Jews, 19 Jewesses, 8 Communists
9 fem. Communists

461

Sep. 2, 41

City of Wilna

864 Jews, 2019 Jewesses, 817 Jewish children (Special operation because Jews had shot at German soldiers)

3,704

Carry-forward

99,804

Page 6

Carry-forward

99,804

Sep. 12, 41

City of Wilna

993 Jews, 1670 Jewesses,
771 J child.

3,334

Sep. 17, 41

“ “

337 „ 687 „ 247 „ And 4 Lith. Communists

1,271

Sep. 20, 41

Nemencing

128 Jews, 176 Jewesses, 99 „

403

Sep. 22, 41

Novo-Wilejka

468 „ 495 „ 196 „

1,159

Sep. 24, 41

Riesa

512 „ 744 „ 511 „

1,767

Sep. 25, 41

Jahiunai

215 „ 229 „ 131 „

575

Sep. 27, 41

Eysisky

989 „ 1636 „ 821 „

3,446

Sep. 30, 41

Trakai

366 „ 483 „ 597 „

1,446

Oct. 4, 41

City of Wilna

432 „ 1115 „ 436 „

1,983

Oct. 6, 41

Semiliski

213 „ 359 „ 390 „

962

Oct. 9, 41

Svenciany

1169 „ 1840 „ 717 „

3,726

Oct. 16, 41

City of Wilna

382 „ 507 „ 257 „

1,146

Oct. 21, 41

„

718 “ 1063 „ 586 „

2,367

Oct. 25, 41

„

– „ 1766 „ 812 „

2,578

Oct. 27, 41

„

946 „ 184 „ 73 „

1,203

Oct. 30, 41

„

382 „ 789 „ 362 „

1,533

Nov. 6, 41

„

340 „ 749 „ 252 „

1,341

Nov. 19, 41

„

76 „ 77 „ 18 „

171

Nov. 19, 41

„

6 prisoners of war, 8 Poles

14

Nov. 20, 41

„

3 „

3

Nov. 25, 41

„

9 Jews, 46 Jewesses,
8 Jewish child-
ren, 1 Pole for possession of weapons and possession of other war equipment

64

Component of
Ein. 3 In Minsk
From Sep 28-
Oct. 17, 41:

Pleschnitza,
Bicholin,
Scak,
Bober,
Uzda

620 Jews, 1285 Jewesses,
1126 J. children, and 19 Communists

3,050

_____

133,346

Jews liquidated by
pogroms and executions,
exclusively by partisans, before the assumption of security police tasks by Einsatzkommando 3

4,000

Total

137,346

Page 7

I can state today that the goal of solving the Jewish problem for Lithuania has been achieved by Einsatzkommando 3. In Lithuania, there are no more Jews, other than the Work Jews, including their families. They are:

In Schaulen around 4,500

In Kauen “ 15,000

In Wilna “ 15,000

I also wanted to kill these Work Jews, including their families, which however brought upon me acrimonious challenges from the civil administration (the Reichskommisar) and the army and caused the prohibition: the Work Jews and their families are not to be shot! The goal of making Lithuania free of Jews could only be attained through the deployment of a raiding commando with selected men under the leadership of SS First Lieutenant Hamann, who completely and entirely adopted my goals and understood the importance of ensuring the co-operation of the Lithuanian partisans and the competent civilian positions. The implementation of such activities is primarily a question of organization. The decision to systematically make every district free of Jews necessitated an exhaustive preparation of each individual operation and reconnaissance of the prevailing circumstances in the applicable district. The Jews had to be assembled at one or several locations. Depending on the number, a place for the required pits had to be found and the pits dug. The marching route from the assembly place to the pits amounted on average to 4 to 5 kilometers. The Jews were transported to the place of execution in detachments of 500, at intervals of at least 2 kilometers. The attendant difficulties and nerve-wracking activity occasioned in doing this are shown in a randomly selected example: In Rokiskis, 3,208 people had to be transported 4.5 kilometers before they could be liquidated. To accomplish this task in 24 hours, more than 60 of the 80 available Lithuanian partisans had to be allocated for transportation and cordoning off duty.

Page 8

The remainder of them, who had to be constantly replaced, carried out the work together with my men. Motor vehicles are only occasionally available. Attempts to escape, which took place every now and then, were prevented exclusively by my men at the risk of their lives. Thus, for example, near Mariampole, three men of the commando shot down 38 escaping Jews and Communist functionaries on a woodland path without anyone escaping. The marching route to and from the individual operations amounted to 160-200 kilometers. Only by clever usage of the time was it possible to carry out up to five operations in a week and at the same time, to manage nonetheless the work in Kauen in such a way that no slow-down in the service work took place. The operations in Kauen itself, where reasonably sufficient trained partisans were available, can be considered as parade shootings compared to the often enormous difficulties that had to be dealt with outside. All the leaders and men of my commando in Kauen have taken part actively in the large-scale operations. Only one official from the police records department was excused from participation due to illness. I consider the Jewish operations for Einsatzkommando 3 as essentially completed. The still available Work Jews and female Work Jews are urgently required and I can foresee that post-Winter, this manpower will still be most urgently required. I am of the view that sterilization of the male Work Jews should begin immediately to prevent reproduction. Should a Jewess nonetheless become pregnant, she is to be liquidated. One of the most important tasks of Einsatzkommando 3, besides the Jewish operations, was the inspection of the mostly overcrowded prisons in the individual locations and cities. On average, in every city in the district, there were 600 people of Lithuanian affiliation in prison, although there was no actual reason for their incarceration. They were taken into custody because of simple denunciations, etc. by partisans. Several personal accounts were settled in this way. Nobody looked after them. One ought to have been in the

Page 9

prisons and spent a minute in the overcrowded cells, which, in respect to hygiene, defied description. In Jonava – and this is one example of many – 16 men, all of whom could have been set free since there was nothing to bring against them, sat for 5 weeks in a dreary cellar room 3 meters long, 3 meters wide and 1.65 meters high. Girls aged 13 to 16 were locked up because they, in order to get work, had applied for admission to the Communist youth. Here it was necessary, through drastic measures, to hammer the proper sense of direction into the heads of the responsible Lithuanian circles. The inhabitants of the prison were assembled in the prison courtyard and checked on the basis of lists and documentation. Those who as a result of harmless offences had been locked up for no reason were assembled in a special group. Those whom we sentenced to 1-3 and 6 months because of their offences were also specially set off, as were those who were to be liquidated, such as criminals, Communist functionaries, politruks and other such riffraff. In addition to the announced punishment, some, according to the offence, especially Communist functionaries, received 10 to 40 lashes with the whip, which were meted out immediately. After completion of the examination, the prisoners were led back to their cells. Those who were to be let free were led in a platoon to the marketplace and there, after a short speech in the presence of many inhabitants, let go. The speech had the following content (it was immediately translated sentence by sentence by an interpreter into Lithuanian and Russian): “If we were Bolshevists, we would have shot you, but because we are Germans, we give you your freedom.” Then followed a severe admonition to abstain from all political activity, to report to the German authorities any hostile activities that came to their attention and to intensively and immediately busy themselves in reconstruction, especially in agriculture. Should one of them again be found guilty of an offence, he would be shot. Then they were released. One cannot imagine the joy, gratitude and enthusiasm that our measures triggered in those who were freed and in the population. We often had to deflate the enthusiasm with sharp words, when women, children and men with tear-filled eyes sought to kiss our hands and feet.

This is the second article in my series about the people Holocaust deniers continually rely on when they put forward their fallacious arguments about how the Holocaust is a hoax.

David Irving – Lying about Hitler

The title “Lying about Hitler” comes from a book written by Richard J. Evans which exposes the lies told by David Irving in his efforts to deny the existence of the Holocaust and in his book “Hitler’s War”, to portray Hitler in a favourable light, especially in regards to his treatment of the Jews.

David Irving would like to be seen by the world as a legitimate historian. His problem is that he isn’t. While he is considered to be an excellent military history archivist who has uncovered some very interesting documents, it is what he does with with those documents later that has caused him all his problems. His books and probably the company he keeps have led him to be banned from entering Italy, Germany, Austria, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

In 1963 Irving wrote a book, The Destruction of Dresden in which he examines the Allied bombing of the city of Dresden in 1945. At the time of its publication there was a lot of debate going on about the morality of the carpet bombing of German cities by the Allies during World War II and so the book met with a great deal of interest. This was also due to the fact that Irving estimated that the bombing caused the deaths of between 100,000 and 250,000 people, a much higher figure than had been previously published. In later editions he reduced this figure to between 50,000 and 100,000.

In evidence presented by Richard J. Evans at the libel trial of Deborah Lipstadt in 2000 [see below], he showed that Irving had based his estimates of the dead of Dresden on the word of one individual who provided no supporting documentation. He said Irving used forged documents, and described one witness who was actually a urologist as Dresden’s Deputy Chief Medical Officer. The doctor has since complained about being misidentified by Irving, and further, was only reporting rumours about the death toll. Today, casualties at Dresden are estimated as 25,000–35,000 dead.

Not surprisingly David Irving is a great fan of the subject of Fred Leuchter a pseudo-engineer who was hired by Ernst Zündel (more about him later), to go to Auschwitz and prove the non-existence of the gas-chambers. Fred promptly did this, well in in own mind at least. You can see my article and video about Fred Leuchter by clicking here.

Irving is reduced to preaching to the converted

Irving has set up his own publishing house in the UK, mainly because no reputable publisher will touch anything he writes. Irving, of course, believes that this is due to the influence of what he calls “the traditional enemy” i.e. the Jews. Most rational people would tend to believe that the reason reputable publishers shun him is because that anything he writes about history will be tainted by his ideological beliefs and cannot be trusted.

At the moment Irving is reduced to peddling his books at conferences organised by right-wing extremists, Holocaust deniers and neo-Nazis. He’s basically preaching to the converted.

A German judge described him as:

.. a falsifier of history dressed up as a martyr” who had denied the “greatest crime of the 20th century.

Here are some more interesting quotes from Mr Irving. Remember, he wants to be seen as a serious historian:

Hitler was the best friend the Jews had in the Third Reich

On the gas chambers at Auschwitz:

I say quite tastelessly, in fact, that more women died in the back seat of Edward Kennedy’s car at Chappaquiddick than ever died in the gas chamber in Auschwitz…..

On money:

I am not, and was not interested in money, unlike your fellow religionists [Jews] whose greed is legendary …..

On Auschwitz Survivors

I’m forming an association especially dedicated to all these liars, the ones who try to kid people that they were in these concentration camps…. It’s called “The Auschwitz Survivors, Survivors of the Holocaust, and Other Liars” — A. S. S. H. O. L. E. S. “

David Irving’s wartime deprivations

I’ve made a little film about David Irving. In it he explains about how he was deprived as child in wartime Britain.

Don’t worry you won’t have to listen to his self-pitying little speech for more than about a minute and a half. I then go on to show some mothers and children who, if they were still here to tell us, would be able to explain to Mr Irving just what wartime deprivation really means.

In 1996, Irving sued Dr. Lipstadt and her British publisher, Penguin Books Ltd., for libel, saying his reputation as an historian was defamed. The suit was filed in the U.K., where libel laws favour plaintiffs. Irving represented himself. Dr. Lipstadt was represented by barrister Richard Rampton, Q.C. and Anthony Julius and James Libson of Mishcon de Reya. The trial started on January 11, 2000 and ended on April 11, 2000 when Judge Charles Gray handed down his judgment: Dr. Lipstadt and Penguin had won their case resoundingly.

Judge Gray found that Irving had “for his own ideological reasons persistently and deliberately misrepresented and manipulated historical evidence” in order to portray Hitler “in an unwarrantedly favourable light” particularly in his treatment of the Jews. Irving had “significantly” misrepresented, misconstrued, omitted, mistranslated, misread and applied double standards to the historical evidence in order to achieve his ideological presentation of history. Judge Gray also found that Irving was an “active Holocaust denier; that he is anti-Semitic and racist, and that he associates with right-wing extremists who promote neo-Nazism.”

After that judgement how can Mr Irving be surprised that the academic world does not take him or his books seriously.

You can find the full transcript of the trial at the site Holocaust Denial on Trial. If you have any interest in the Holocaust and its history you can find it all there in the transcript. It makes fascinating reading. It is also extremely long but well worth the effort.

Holocaust Deniers – Fred Leuchter

YouTube is full of videos denying the Holocaust. Many of these films purport to show evidence that the Holocaust never took place and that it is a myth invented by the Allies, the Soviet communists, and the Jews for their own ends.

Although deniers like to see themselves as revisionists, their pseudo-scientific theories, justifications and excuses are more about anti-Semitism and hate politics than they are about history. They would like to debate the very existence of the Holocaust as a historic event. However as far as legitimate historians are concerned there is nothing to debate. They accept the fact that it took place. There is no debate.

In their efforts to show that the Holocaust is a myth, despite the existence of overwhelming evidence to the contrary, I’ve noticed that the makers of these clips rely on regurgitating the views of a number of people they see as legitimate historians and experts.

They claim the evidence these experts have produced, discredit the Holocaust as a historical event. I’ve decided to make a series of videos about these so called experts.

Fred Leuchter

The first of these is Fred Leuchter. In the video Fred claims he is an engineer. He isn’t.

In October 1990, the commonwealth of Massachusetts brought criminal charges against Leuchter for representing himself as an engineer without a license.

Leuchter not only lacks an engineering license but has neither an engineering degree nor any other relevant professional certification or recognized engineering credentials .

He admits to having no formal training in toxicology, biology or chemistry.

The evidence produced by this so called expert, in what has become known as the Leuchter report, is what Holocaust deniers declare to be definitive proof that the gas chambers at Auschwitz did not exist.

Leuchter’s involvement in Holocaust denial began in 1988 when he was hired by Ernst Zündel, another Holocaust denier, to investigate and testify as an expert witness at his trial in Canada. Leuchter was paid a fee of $30,000 for his work. Fred armed himself with a hammer and a chisel, flew off to Poland and desecrated what is considered a religious memorial to millions of people.

The vast majority of the material in this video comes from Mr Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter, Jr documentary film made by Errol Morris in 1999.